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Venezuela

(61 Posts)
lemongrove Wed 21-Feb-18 22:27:37

Just watching News At Ten, what a situation for the hungry (on the point of starvation)families there, it’s shocking.
A Socialist Hell.

POGS Fri 23-Feb-18 12:21:14

More recent news from Venezuela tells us Venezuelans are fleeing the country.

Modurro has got a firmer grip on the country.

Modurro is trying to save the country by using a Cryptocurrency.

And this is the country we should aspire to follow in the path of according to some politicians. True they have been a bit quiet of late and roll their eyes and deflect questions when Venezuela is mentioned but as far as I see it they still hold Chavez and Modurro in high esteem.

M0nica Fri 23-Feb-18 14:25:36

The UN is a peace keeping organisation. It cannot intervene in countries, just because they are badly managed, where would it start and stop? North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Venezuala, etc, etc, etc. It does not have its own army but must rely on the willingness of members to volunteer their troops to undertake the role.

It cannot intervene in warring countries if those involved in the warring are not happy for it to do so. Supposing it had tried to intervene in Syria, despite Assad not agreeing. How would it get there? Where would it land? How would it stop Syria blowing it out of the air or water before it even arrive?. What country would volunteer its army to provide the UN with the forces needed for such a suicidal mission. Would those criticising the UN be happy to see British troops being volunteered for such a mission?

The UN has been working constantly since the Syrian war started, to try to organise a peace deal and broker truces. But you cannot play tennis if your opponent won't let you on the court or permit you a tennis racquet. The UN is often quietly successful in negotiating agreements and truces, but it can only go where it is asked and supported.

Jalima1108 Fri 23-Feb-18 17:19:58

As far as Yugoslavia is concerned, the history was very complicated. It was partly formed after WW1, named Yugoslavia in 1929 I think, and formed as a federation after WW11, held together under Tito (Life President until he died in 1980).
Trying to combine such disparate countries and peoples was never going to be easy.

When we went in 1990 there was simmering tensions and financial difficulties, then just after that, of course, the terrible wars.

Jalima1108 Fri 23-Feb-18 17:23:30

So - if it cannot intervene in the internal affairs of countries and cannot intervene in warring countries if those involved are not happy is there any point to it?
Their peace-keeping efforts have led to its reputation being questioned and much criticism being levelled at them.

M0nica Fri 23-Feb-18 19:34:21

The UN has carried out many missions successfully.

One example was ending the civil war in Sierra Leone and returning the country to peace.
reliefweb.int/report/sierra-leone/sierra-leone-peacekeeping-success-lessons-learned-unamsil

whitewave Fri 23-Feb-18 19:44:02

They are charged with overseeing human rights - look at their criticism of the U.K. and the way it treats the disabled for one thing, health so it would coordinate epidemic treatment etc, economic development, other stuff like refugee assistance and childhood. All members are signed up to it and it largely adher and give appropriate assistance, most of which we don’t hear about.

lemongrove Fri 23-Feb-18 19:57:28

Look at their criticism of the UK!
The way it treats disabled people?
You have to be joking.

whitewave Fri 23-Feb-18 19:58:55

Oh dear

Jalima1108 Fri 23-Feb-18 19:59:33

One example was ending the civil war in Sierra Leone and returning the country to peace.
Perhaps they need to build on their success then.

M0nica Sat 24-Feb-18 08:17:55

The UN has conducted many successful peace keeping interventions. Sierra Leone was but one. The problem Wars are big news, no wars aren't.

The UN is very much a sum of its parts. It has 193 members and a Security Council of 15, with 5 permanent members and 10 members voted on and off. It only takes one vote in the Security Council, to defeat a motion. Currently Russia is causing the problem in getting a truce in Syria.

The remarkable thing is not those cases where the UN has been unable to intervene, but the large number of occasions where it has got all, or most countries to agree on peace keeping measures and then got individual countries to provide both men and money to do the job.

The British army provided all the troops and logistics for the Sierra Leone intervention, which was so resounding a success.

here is a list of UN peace keeping missions
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_Nations_peacekeeping_missions